1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a fiber optic cable. Its applications include, but are not exclusive to, the field of fiber optic cable jointing boxes, also known as splice organizers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Jointing boxes generally include a pluralility of substantially rectangular cassettes that can be stowed side by side in racks or stacked in the form of drawers. The cassettes accommodate fiber optic cable connectors and spare lengths of fiber optic cable, these spare lengths being provided to enable subsequent resplicing operations.
Ribbon or flat cable type fiber optic cables in which the optical fibers are disposed parallel to each other and are embedded in an extruded insulative sheath forming a ribbon are known in themselves. It is advantageous to use a flat cable of this kind in a jointing cassette because mass jointing is simpler than jointing independent fibers.
The inventors have found that coiling a flat cable in a jointing cassette leads to curvature problems, the radius of curvature being limited by the stiffness of the flat cable, the effect of which is to cause difficulties in passing the flat cable into certain parts of the cassette and a problem caused by a spring effect of the flat cable which tends naturally to open out when it is coiled up on itself.
An aim of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art.